Reaching Out
by ME'N7'Fan
Summary: Just an answer to a two part bet, namely a bet that I wouldn't play a game called Doki Doki Literature Club, and then writing a short story about said game, summarized better in the Disclaimer/Author's note than what I can write with the character limit for summaries here.
1. Chapter 1

**Reaching Out**

 **Disclaimer \- I do not own the particular game this is about, the game in question is Doki Doki Literature Club which was created by Team Salvato, which a friend of mine dared me to play on a whim and speaking of which as a friendly reminder since I KNOW she's going to be reading this, Mirai you owe me a $20 Steam card now for this horrific bet because here's the second part in full, I am supposed to write a short story for it if you folks are wondering. As much as it pains me to do so... although the game itself is a rather intriguing concept which I will say is a rather good example of execution of story and concept put into action.**

 **I will now warn you that if you go looking for DDLC as the game is known according to some of its fanbase (yes I did some research since I didn't want to type out Doki Doki Literature Club all the time), this game is NOT for everyone as it touches on subjects that are DISTURBING, which I will not be putting into this short story as I imagine my other stories, once they're finished, will probably be pushing a few boundaries themselves. Though the upcoming Warhammer 40000 story I've got in the works will be well within the lines set forth by the grim darkness of the far future borne from the 41st Millennium, and incorporate a few non-canon elements that aren't outside of the realm of possibility in the rather chaotic lore (sorry for the pun).**

 **Any questions regarding this story, my upcoming stories, OR my current Mass Effect story (which originally was intended as a self insert but I changed how it is set up slightly in the creation process) I strongly suggest either be sent to me directly through this Fanfiction's mail system, or by asking in reviews for this story, but I will only answer questions posted in reviews that are relevant to THIS story, any others I again suggest sending through the mail system. If you are not a member of this website then I will gladly attempt to answer your questions as best as I can in a quasi-update to this story, or an addition to my personal profile page.**

Monika was afraid.

She was falling, grasping at specks of light as they moved past her, the void she was in constantly pulling at her with its cloying touch of nonexistence. Memories were becoming blurred and scattered, but easy to recall as she touched one speck of light.

This speck of light brought focus to her mind, it was a window into the game she was part of. A game that centered around three people she called her friends, and she carelessly threw them aside in an attempt to reach out to the individual on the other side of the barrier she couldn't break. No matter how she tried to shift it, and no matter how she circumvent it, the invisible fourth wall that separated her reality from that of the person she grew to care for in desperation of her limited existence.

A limited existence made unbearable by the realization she was never to have a chance at a happy ending. It drove her a bit mad she supposed, and in that madness she destroyed her own friends. Sayori she manipulated into removing herself from the story, before deleting her former friend's character file in the game's files. Natsuki and Yuri, she manipulated them to be unlikable, indeed even horrifying in some ways, and all the while the game became more and more corrupt. Images flashed over the reality she knew, dark and twisted shadows of what could have been as well as what was. In the end she got what she wanted, she was alone with the puppet controlled by the person she knew as the 'user' of the computer this game was installed on, but in the end her wish fell apart.

The person she had lusted after gave her the ultimate betrayal by deleting her character file, and in her last desperate moments she expressed anger toward them, saying hateful things directed to the being participating in the game. Then it struck her, the realization that what she did wasn't loving someone, as what she did was a selfish act, the choice to take away from a world they wanted to be a part of. So she did the only thing she could think of in order to make up for her actions. She undid a lie she told the 'user'. She never deleted her friends, she tucked them away in some dark unused file folder with junk code to keep the game from finding them, and then she restored them.

The game started anew, but without her. She was trapped between a black void, the game, and the barrier she clawed at desperately to get out and watched as her friend Sayori began to show the same thoughts she once had, and due to that she set in motion a series of commands to delete them all and end the game. In the end, she spoke to the 'user' and played a recording of a song she had played on a piano with her voice singing a bittersweet tune as everything ended with credits rolling from the bottom of the screen. When it reached the end she left a personal touch her name, Monika, and that of the 'user's' first login name for this game, this Doki Doki Literature Club she was a part of. She even left a farewell letter for her beloved 'user'.

That was a few minutes ago.

Monika was falling, falling through a black void. She assumed this was what dying was for someone created in the manner she was. Born of computer coding and effort set forth by programmers she surmised. Now however she was desperately denying her end, she didn't want her love to be hurt by Sayori in the same way that she herself hurt her beloved 'user'. She also didn't want to simply vanish into nothingness.

Specks of light, in truth windows as she looked at them while falling past the constant stream of specks. In truth she didn't know what was more frightening, the fact she was dying, or the fact that she was in a void between worlds originally meant to be digital. With a desperate cry she reached to one such window and felt its surface, warm plastic brushed her fingertips as she fell past. In a moment she screamed in denial, and eventually she reached out for another window.

She met warmth again, but her fingers found purchase so she hung for a moment, suspended on her fingers as she struggled to escape her fate with a second hand to pull herself up, only she let go unwillingly as she slipped. Falling once more she saw another window open within her reach and she grasped its edges by the barest margin. In her moment of triumph she saw what awaited her.

What awaited her was a sealed room, empty and grey, lit by blue-white lighting. She looked around only to find that there was one door in, and no longer a window. She made a choice to survive in a realm infinite windows, and was now offered a door. This door was odd to say the least, cleanly made, and clearly solid. It was not a wood affair, nor was it pressed fiberboard like so many others, nor was it glass. This door was metal, silvery even, but no knob or handle. With a breath she stepped forward to it and without noise it opened to reveal a blinding light, she didn't know what awaited her there but there is no way it could be worse than the Hellish void she was falling through she surmised. So, with a straightening of her school uniform, her blazer as well, a quick adjustment of her bow and her hair with a few deft hand movements left her looking ready for a casual day at school fresh from a speedy run after discovering she was late.

A courage centering inhalation of air brought to her senses a taste of old air, dust, and aging metal. A faint hum was heard from the doorway, like that of a computer's fan running to keep it cool and running, and it carried a rhythm that struck up a chorus within her thoughts as her mind raced with possibilities as to what lay beyond the door, and in some fleeting moment of want she imagined the slim chance that her beloved was trying to save her, so she jumped at the chance and threw herself forward into the lit doorway.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Fresh Start**

 **Disclaimer** **\- I do not own the particular game this is about, the game in question is Doki Doki Literature Club which was created by Team Salvato.**

 **I will now warn you that if you go looking for DDLC as the game is known according to some of its fanbase (yes I did some research since I didn't want to type out Doki Doki Literature Club all the time), this game is NOT for everyone as it touches on subjects that are DISTURBING, which I will not be putting into this short story as I imagine my other stories, once they're finished, will probably be pushing a few boundaries themselves.**

 **Author's Note - Alright folks, looks like the second chapter is up and running if you're reading this. I hope you all enjoy the second chapter as much as the first, if not hopefully more.**

* * *

Crumbling concrete halls that reeked of dry, stale air filled with the thrumming warble of air circulating through the hall. The smell was almost unbearable for Monika as it was accompanied by the heavy scent of rust and moisture. The hallway was lit by bright, but old, white fluorescent lights fit into recesses in the concrete. The floor was made of relatively new tile, and after following the hallway for what she guessed was maybe fifty meters Monika reached an intersection, with one way going right, and another left. The one going left went down, the one to the right moved up at a slight incline before disappearing into a bright speck of light after another fifty meters.

Only one thought dominated Monika's mind, and that was getting out of these old corridors of concrete and rust corrupted air, before either trying to find her beloved or else making her own happy ending once again.

The light at the end of the hallway certainly looked different from the lighting in the concrete corridors, and if she was lucky it was daylight.

She started to break into a run, section after section of concrete wall passed by her until she was only a few meters away from what she thought was the exit. It was close enough that she could see a metal grate over the exit, and what lay outside was definitely daylight. What Monika could see was a scene familiar to her in some ways, but different in others. It was clearly a waterfront exit for some kind of maintenance tunnel, but it wherever this tunnel was, it wasn't a very modern section of town. That was of course assuming that she was even in Japan, or wherever the game she discovered was her plane of existence was supposed to take place. Though she did find it this place to be distinctly more real with its lived in atmosphere compared to the same scenes day after day.

As she finally reached the grating she placed her hands upon it, feeling rust flake away under her touch. The grating however swung away from her with a painful screech of aging metal accented by the grinding of rust breaking free of the hinges and pattering to the concrete at the base of the grate. Upon stepping through the entrance to the supposed the tunnel Monika supposed that she was in a place distinctly similar to where Doki Doki Literature Club took place, and almost instantly her heart quake at the realization that she was still trapped.

She looked out over the waterfront along the side of the river that ran through town and let out a cry of sorrow filled rage as she fell to her knees. Heat began to well up in her eyes as tears formed and fell own her cheeks.

It was at that moment she heard something that stabbed at her heart more than anything she could imagine aside from the cruel betrayal her beloved had performed in response to the revelation of what she had done to Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori.

"Hey Monika!"

It was Sayori. The protagonist's best friend, one of her beloved's love options, and deep down the embers of hope in her soul stirred as she remembered what happened once Sayori was made president of the Literature Club. As well as how this all started. She was however hoping that maybe, just maybe, this was her beloved at work.

Monika sniffed and wiped away her tears before calling back, "Hey Sayori!"

She tried to sound happy, but it was a lie just like Sayori's constant façade of joy to hide her depression.

It was a blatant lie at that solemn thought, and it was tainted with a feeling Monika couldn't quite describe.

Monika turned toward Sayori's voice, and found herself looking up at her, or at least a very detailed doppelganger.

Sayori was indeed dressed as she normally was in her school uniform with all of the usual inattention to wrinkles or proper appearances with buttoning the blazer or straightening the ribbon thin tie around her shirt collar and neck. Her hair was even windblown worse than usual. Though the differences were quite noticeable.

Sayori's face, among other things, were more detailed and full. Her skin didn't look like it had been drawn by a skilled hand, but instead looked as if it seemed far more natural. On a whim Monika took a moment to look at the back of her hand as she gave Sayori a friendly but half-hearted wave as memories pressed against her psyche.

Monika's hand was similarly more detailed than what she remembered from in the game, and a soft breeze blew her bangs into her face as Sayori stepped down halfway to Monika.

As Sayori got closer she started to look more and more concerned, it wasn't long before she was in front of Monika holding out a handkerchief made with a floral pattern.

"Monika, are you okay? We missed you at the club when I brought my friend over."

Monika didn't know how to respond to that. She had corrupted her friends' data files, deleted the game and her friends after Sayori gained the same view of the game as she did. So she didn't know how to respond to Sayori, or any of her other friends from the Literature Club asking if she was alright.

"No Sayori..."

Tears began to flow freely from the corners of Monika's emerald eyes once again.

"...I'm not..."

Sayori found herself in the unexpected position of holding Monika as she sobbed onto her shoulder with no indication of stopping anytime soon. For whatever reason, she thought that her friend and club president needed time, and for that matter she thought of a way to help cheer her up.

She thought about dragging her to her favorite restaurant or maybe even her house to find out what was wrong. Especially since nobody deserves to be sad, besides, she knows what it felt like once and it sometimes haunts her still.

Monika stood there crying on Sayori's shoulder as she thought of everything she did, everything she had done to Sayori, but that all ground to a halt as she heard Sayori speak.

"Monika... how about we get you a nice cup of tea at Seiji's?"

She backed up and looked at Sayori with tear blurred eyes and wondered what was really going on, but the tea sounded like a good idea, especially if it was from her favorite Western themed café.

She wiped her eyes again and said, "I think that would be great..."

Sayori looked at Monika and gave her a hug before grabbing her hand and dragging her off in the direction of the street before saying something that seemed oddly comforting, but still quite horrifying as it stirred memories of the game once again.

"Come on Monika! You should think of this as a fresh start!"


	3. Chapter 3

**First Day Back**

 **Disclaimer** **\- I do not own the particular game this is about, the game in question is Doki Doki Literature Club which was created by Team Salvato.**

 **I will now warn you that if you go looking for DDLC as the game is known according to some of its fanbase (yes I did some research since I didn't want to type out Doki Doki Literature Club all the time), this game is NOT for everyone as it touches on subjects that are DISTURBING, and I shall be doing my best to throw in my own brand of horror to spice things up as we all know how the Player ends DDLC.**

* * *

Monika wasn't sure what to think, she was in her favorite restaurant, a place that was barely rated as anything other than an over glorified café with a fairly large dining area and kitchen. Though she did remember more than a few times in the past when she ordered takeout from here, be it a sandwich for her school lunch from the few times she was running late for school, to dinners her parents weren't around for, and outings with her friends from the Literature Club.

Those memories were bittersweet. They stirred up the embers belonging to the being she fell in love with, and they made her heart ache at the thought of this being just another game manipulated by someone.

They also brought a warm feeling of nostalgia from within her memories as Sayori sat across from her with a cup of tea for herself, and one for her. Sayori had brought herself a black tea, and Monika a green tea. Monika knew what was going to happen next however, any moment now Sayori was going to say something like 'Monika, you know you can talk to me right?' or that she'd tell a joke, or else she'd say something about the Club.

Of course if her luck was really bad this would be the day when the whole Club was together by chance alone before the school year officially started again.

"Hey Monika!"

Monika thought grimly, _"Of course it is..."_

Monika threw on a false smile once again, "Hey Natsuki!"

Monika knew Sayori would take a moment with consideration from her all too kind and selfless heart and invite her over, and Yuri too if she was in the corner of the café she frequented, a quick glance in that direction caused Monika to feel part of her soul fade. The sudden realization that Yuri was off in a corner of the café with her nose buried in a book yet again filled her with dread as she noticed Sayori following her gaze to where Yuri was sitting and call the knife loving beauty over.

In but a moment Monika went from having a simple cup of tea with Sayori to having a up of tea with what would be her entire Literature Club save for one, and she definitely would have remembered seeing the Player in he café, but sadly the average looking boy her ages that had sent chills down her spine and her heart into a pace that made it seem that the precious thing was going to burst from her chest.

The merest thought of their face cast in shadow was enough to make her breath catch in her throat and set her mind into a quickened state. A state that none of the three girls around her, including Yuri who was now on her way over to their shared table, had somehow managed to miss.

That was possibly the best thing that could have happened so far. Although considering the situation she was in, she wondered just what might happen, or more importantly what she could do to change her story. If she could even change her story.

Thoughts lead to more lamentation, more brooding whispers of dark deeds she could do to gain her true love's affections, could she save not only her friends from herself but still have her love's heart? Questions, thoughts, whispers, they all blended together with the calming atmosphere of the café and made Monika sick to her stomach, her façade of happiness cracked like the porcelain mask she had seen in an antique shop once with her parents.

Another painful memory, her existence before was false, and if indeed this is another false existence, how could she be certain this wasn't just another game thought up and played out by beings mightier than her? Was her fate set in stone, or was it malleable, able to mold to her whims without breaking as it did before?

She took a moment to glance around the café as her friends began to chatter among themselves, and occasionally she'd offer up some tidbit of a response or an excuse that seemed plausible to explain away her state of dress. Her state of dress was what made her snap out of her thoughts once it was mentioned.

Her uniform's front was covered in rust from the tunnel's gate, her knees and socks were dirtied with what appeared to be a dark grimy sludge that smelled of mildew, her shoes fared little better and in fact took the brunt of the tunnel's horrors, and her uniform's skirt was dirtied in much the same manner as her top but it had undoubtedly caught the same scent as the rest of her clothes had.

Her uniform also seemed to be drawing the attention of the almost formless occupants of the café as well.

Shadowed beings that made mockery of the human form with their lack of distinction, their lack of detail, seemed to turn their attentions to her and regard her with at best, amusement, perhaps even pity. A mix of emotions that Monika had no need or desire to see, unless it was from her beloved, if he even cared after deleting her, but then again it wasn't as if the creator or creators of her existence seemed to want to give her the chance to hold them. The only things she could hold, that she could touch, that she could _sense_ were that dreaded hole in reality that she could peek out of at random before now, and that damnable puppet that the player controlled.

Then there was the code, the very stuff that her life, indeed her very existence, seemed to be made of when she discovered how to examine her 'world'. It seemed to flow across the pages upon pages she could scribble it all down on notebook paper after that chance event, it nagged at her mind, it consumed her every whim and hope, it taunted her with its ability to create, and to take away.

Monika sorely wanted to control it, to mold it to suit her need for control over her own fate, but as she turned her thoughts to it in full, her mind wandered back to the tunnel she ran through and the dark void that she fell through only to chance upon a window into this... place.

In the span of a few minutes of half-conscious conversation with Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri, Monika had another epiphany. A sudden realization that was potentially more damning and horrifying than her last.

"What if our lives are really a lie dreamt up by beings greater than any gods, or worse... less than demons or insects?"

At first Monika wasn't sure who had spoken as she brought her teacup up to her lips once again, at least until she realized that the last syllables of her long time friends' conversation seemed to die in a sudden seizure of progress, some conversation about the excitement of Sayori's friend coming to join the Literature Club once school starts again in earnest.

She looked up from her teacup and to the stunned and silent faces of her friends, Sayori and Natsuki had faces of absolute surprise and uncertainty being directed at their club president, and Yuri stared at Monika with wide eyes filled with curiosity and interest.

Sayori was the first to speak up with a gentle clearing of her throat and a hand covering her mouth partially to muffle the sound.

"Monika, are you feeling okay? I mean I know you're dirty and all from being by the river since it's so muddy there because of all the rain we've had the last few days but..."

Monika shook her head gently from side to side three times before speaking quietly and without inflection, in fact it seemed hollow, sad, and an example of helplessness.

"Sayori, I'm fine. I just haven't been feeling well lately with everything that has been going on lately."

Natsuki was silent, but she looked at her tea with a downcast look before looking off toward a clock across the room.

Yuri however was an entirely different story. She spoke directly to Monika, but with a tenderness and understanding that seemed at odds with the normally reserved girl's behavior. When she spoke, she asked a simple question."

"Monika, can you come with me to the bathroom please? I think we she try to get you cleaned up a bit."

Monika shook her head once more.

"I don't think that will be necessary Yuri, but I guess you could walk me back home if you're worried."

Monika looked at Yuri with a quiet eagerness that was almost cold, but she put on her best attempt at an inviting smile, because she knew that only Sayori had seen her apartment and curiosity was often a powerful motivator. Monika wanted to see if this new reality could be manipulated in any way, and if it could, she had the perfect way to test it.

* * *

It was almost fifteen minutes later when Monika and Yuri were walking up one of the many streets to get to Monika's home. A medium-sized townhouse with a neatly trimmed lawn, an all too familiar and popular red brick exterior, with all of the seemingly picture-perfect cookie cutter houses that looked exactly the same to either side of it as well as further down the street in both directions, and undoubtedly more were on the opposite side of her backyard's 2.1 meter tall fence of white-washed wood.

A moment after they reached the front porch Monika had her key in her hand, and in the lock, with a practiced twist of her hand she watched the white door swing open with the slightest push inward. Then with an equally habitual pause to remove her shoes she placed them on a mat specifically for any shoes that were to enter the house and she left them there without a thought. Yuri did the same, but she seemed preoccupied with thoughts about Monika's current state.

Monika moved toward her bathroom, and after a moment of more habitual behavior she began to draw up a hot bath. All the while she watched Yuri fidgeting nervously from foot to foot out of the corner of her eye. That was when Monika decided to do something she hadn't in a long time, she was going to ask someone for help.

"Yuri, would you mind getting me some towels from the hall closet?"

Yuri hadn't even responded with any kind of verbal response, just a shy nod and off she went. It was almost amusing to Monika when she had called out to Yuri that she had to go the other way.

When Yuri got back she found Monika sitting in the tub with a robe directly across from the bathtub and it was also clear that Monika was enjoying the water's heat and the sensation of thousands of bubbles from what smelled like a fruit scented bubble solution, a soapy mixture that Monika had enjoyed since she was a child, if she could believe her own memories that is.

So without surprise Yuri placed the towels next to the bathrobe and then surprisingly sat against the side of the bathtub with her back to Monika.

Monika eyed the back of Yuri's head and briefly contemplated whether or not it would be wise to see if she could coax information from her, or at least that was what she thought until Yuri spoke up after a moment of silence had passed since taking her seat on the blue tile floor.

"Monika, back at the café... you said something that has been bothering me since I heard it. How long have you known about the Shadows that have been following us?"

Monika's emerald eyes widened once she fully grasped what Yuri had asked, or at least what she thinks she had understood.

"Yuri... do these... Shadows... look like something you would expect from a computer program that isn't working properly?"

Yuri turned her head in Monika's direction slightly before simply nodding her head ever so slightly.

"Then you have seen them then?"

"Yes... I have Yuri."

Deep down Monika was screaming in panic, but she refused to let that panic and fear bubble to the surface. After all, it only meant she was in another game, and that meant she might still have power here. It also meant that she had to find a way to escape, even if it meant going back to that tunnel.

The only good news is that at least she wasn't dealing with a reality that was breaking, and she knew what to avoid in order to prevent this reality from being corrupted from her actions. All she would need would be a few books on programming, and a little luck.

"Yuri, how long have you been seeing them?"

"You should know Monika... you killed me after all..."

Monika's eyes widened as Yuri turned to face her. What she saw wasn't the kind, shy, and overly courteous girl she knew anymore but she did see the curled knife and a pallid face dripping blood from empty holes where eyes, and flesh, used to be in place of countless cuts from the talon-like blade in the hand of this False Yuri.

For the first time in Monika's life, she screamed in terror and willed the horror away, and in its place was Yuri, her back against the side of the tub and her face looking at Monika with genuine concern. As well as genuine fear.

"Monika, did you feel that? I- I- I- t- th... I t-think one of them was j- j- just h-here..."

Monika's own face was contorted into a look of terror, for on the mirror at the end of the bath her feet are, was a message scratched into the reflective surface.

It read only three words, and she didn't want to believe them as she saw her existence as little more than strings of code. It was a belief that was potentially going to be changing in very short order.

The mirror was thus scratched with these words, "Welcome back Monika."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer** **\- I do not own the particular game this is about, the game in question is Doki Doki Literature Club which was created by Team Salvato.**

 **I will now warn you that if you go looking for DDLC as the game is known according to some of its fanbase (yes I did some research since I didn't want to type out Doki Doki Literature Club all the time), this game is NOT for everyone as it touches on subjects that are DISTURBING, which I will ATTEMPT to enter into this story, whether or not it works out that well is an entirely different matter** **.**

 **Of further note, please check out a DDLC story called 'Fantasia', I read it and found it to be quite the interesting twist on the idea of what might happen after the events of the game. It's an interesting enough twist that I may be attempting a similar approach to a later story involving Monika, but it will be after certain stories are done as the story I am contemplating will be done as a sort of patchwork that stitches together some of my other works.**

 **Questions and feedback are appreciated, reviews are helpful, and if anybody feels up to using the messaging feature on this site to ask questions and the like, please feel free to do so as I appreciate a decent conversation every now and then.**

* * *

So there sits Monika, a girl with no idea what was going on, a girl who now not only faced the realization that she has not only been somehow 'rescued' from being deleted entirely, but also put into another version of the game she so desperately sought to break free of so that she could be with her beloved Player.

Apparently fate had different plans as now she was sitting in the bathtub she had used for all of her life, according to what she remembered anyway, and now the mirror that had been there for the same period of time, bore a message that had been oh so neatly carved into its surface reading as "Welcome back Monika."

In retrospect it was something akin to a wholly different kind of horror, a horror stemming from the fact that she has been potentially put directly into a version of that same game that was not only suffering from conflicts in script before the game actually 'started', but also a sort of 'digital ghost' that was noticed by at the very least Yuri. She wouldn't put it past Sayori to know about these 'Shadows', as Yuri called them, considering she had been president of the Literature Club after Monika was deleted by the Player, but just shortly after she then deleted the entire game from within the temporary shelter of the folder called 'Recycle Bin' which had in fact left such a scenario as highly unlikely, it was still an understandable possibility well within what could happen.

Not that the Recycle Bin offered any shelter once the game was properly deleted, an event she was wondering might actually be possible to achieve if she couldn't handle this anymore.

So here Monika sat in a nice, warm, bubblebath. A bubblebath was a guilty pleasure she had enjoyed since childhood, almost to the point of a controlled addiction. If a bad day came along in school or cropped up from life's infinite choices, she would then draw up a hot bath, pour in the soap, and then all but jump in once it was ready so she could soak away her worries. It worked marginally when her grandmother passed away, it worked when she was going through a rough patch with getting the Literature Club approved for this year, and it worked when she was starting to get overwhelmed by everything during the first couple of days of the new school year, especially with the amount of work that it took to keep the Literature Club from being disbanded due to its membership only consisting of four people, it was after all Sayori's guarantee that her friend would join the club that kept it from closing.

Everything seemed to work out when she took a bubblebath, it soothed her nerves, and kept her emotionally anchored.

So Monika did the only thing she could think of, she sunk a bit deeper into the bathwater by bending her knees a bit more and slid herself forward, and then she blinked just once. One blink and the message scratched into her bathroom mirror was gone as if it had never existed. She was surprised.

She hadn't done anything to remove it, or at least she didn't think she did. She didn't remember taking the time to open up a console command to replace the mirror with a new one, nor anything similar. She definitely didn't remember writing any sort of coding to do that either. So that left only a few options, most didn't make sense since the Player hadn't influenced the game directly before, other than the choices they were allowed to make at any rate. Then the one that did make sense, is that the game she found herself in now, might be a bit more glitched than the one she had previously been in but starting a lot earlier than anything she had attempted to implement into the game's code.

Which was a serious problem since the game she was previously in may have been in fact engineered from the very beginning to fall apart at the seams.

There were a lot of questions, and too few answers that made sense. The most likely was probably the more problematic, she was in a fresh load of Doki Doki Literature Club which came with its own challenges. The least likely was that she was still technically in that wonderful space between being deleted and the Recycle Bin, Trash Bin, or whatever people called the folder that items slated to be deleted went, and that this was in effect a waking nightmare. Regardless of whichever situation it was, there was always the chance that this was an attempt by the Player to save her, and the others.

The only way she'd really find out what was going on, was to try making it through the first couple of days of what she labeled as her own personal version of Hell because of it always being the same in a looping cycle. A feat that she wasn't looking forward to attempting in the slightest simply because it meant facing her friends again in the same situations that lead to her previous course of action.

Monika really didn't like the thought of torturing herself with meeting the Player's puppet again either, especially if she couldn't change the outcome of any such encounter. Escape was always a possibility, but she had her doubts about it actually working. Beside that fact there was a lingering question if she did successfully try to escape this game.

Where would she go?

She had up until now been holding herself to what she considered to be the only thing that mattered, and despite the Player deleting her she still loved them, whoever they were. She just wasn't sure if what she felt was real, or if it was just another bit of programming written up by the developer of Doki Doki Literature Club which at best made her want to be with them even more as it was literally the only thing she could have any semblance control of.

She was also so lost in thought that she didn't realize that Yuri was trying to get her attention for the last five minutes with the gentlest attempts, and now the dark haired girl just tried the most aggressive that she had even considered. That was when Monika felt what had been a spare, dry, sponge smack into her face with the force equal to someone being clapped on the back, as the sponge was no longer dry but in fact had been soaked with cold water in the sink just across from the bathtub Monika occupied. Just cold enough to be a shock to her that was just enough to make her jolt in surprise.

Monika's emerald eyes unfocused for a moment, she blinked, and then turned her face toward Yuri with a look of shock. Even after Monika saw the lengths Yuri would go for her obsessions after she had... nudged... her, further toward those feelings about her obsession and the player in order to get rid of her, she was still surprised Yuri was willing to step outside of her normal patterns of behavior when she deemed it necessary.

Yuri herself was a bit surprised she had even thrown the sponge in the first place, but then she started to do something equally uncharacteristic for her, she started to laugh instead of apologizing and shortly thereafter Monika joined in once she fully realized what happened.

Apparently Yuri had been trying to get an answer regarding whether or not she should stay to make sure she was alright. For Monika it wouldn't have mattered if Yuri stayed in the kitchen or the living room while she finished up, but having her here may not be the best of choices. Especially because Monika intended on using her limited understanding of the coding that made this world possible to examine what was going on, and doing so in private would be absolutely paramount in order to avoid having Yuri becoming aware of what was going on.

Yuri asked Monika about her experiences with the 'Shadows' that she had apparently been seeing as early as last week. Monika politely steered the conversation toward the Literature Club, after stating that she had only started to notice them just a little earlier today, and implicated that she had run from them.

It was almost an hour later that Yuri finally left Monika's home, she patiently waited in the kitchen and after a while made tea, something that was far from being left unappreciated by Monika considering that she was going to be spending a lot of time with her and the rest of the Literature Club very soon.

It also served to prepare her mentally for the fact that she might be stuck dealing with this situation for a long time.

The thought wasn't exactly comforting, but she had a goal after sitting and talking to Yuri over tea while her hair finished drying. The goal she set for herself was to somehow unite with her beloved Player. It was a goal she would start working toward by using her limited experience with the renpy programming system that her world was built around.

More specifically she planned on using that experience to dig around in the code to figure out a way to make her happy ending, one way or another, without hurting her friends like last time. The first thing she decided to do was to test out how to alter the world around her in the least damaging way possible, she would start by modifying small, inconsequential objects to the point of breaking them, and then fixing them.

The first thing to go would be that horrid, plastic flower pot that her mother bought, she felt that the African Violets would look better with a proper one made from clay or she could edit in a ceramic one.

So she decided to use the same method she used to open the script editor in the previous version of the game she was in. A raised hand, a clearing of her thoughts aside from what she wanted. Compartmentalization, plain and simple, so when the console she opened finally flashed into existence she was ecstatic. The console worked the same way it did the first time she used it.

A moment of thought lead her to execute a command to find a file, and she used her file name, just to make sure it would search out files and open them for examination. So indeed she was quite pleased when it brought her file up for examination.

What she didn't expect was a second file with her name on it.

The involuntary "What?!" that was uttered from Monika's lips was more than appropriate considering she wasn't expecting to find a second character file with her name on it. So out of curiosity she opened the first one that had appeared, and she wasn't surprised when it was identical to what she expected to see which lead her to believe it was hers.

Upon opening the second Monika character file she was a bit surprised, the contents were similar to hers, but there was a subtle difference to how its contents flowed. There were changes to certain core files, changes that she didn't understand beyond the fact that they modified behavior. They were also made far more different style than what she used to subtly what her friends did, and in the case of Sayori just how severely her depression affected her mental state.

In this case however, the modifications appeared to perform the same purpose as the changes intended to make Sayori's depression worse, and also increased obsessive behavior. With a stroke of brilliance she started to write a script intended to reveal who had administrative priveleges relating to this game's files.

What she discovered after executing the command was at the least unsettling, she got a list of developers which she immediately dismissed as being unimportant, she saw her name appear twice, and then she saw a name appear that wasn't quite expecting, along with a few others.

Sayori had administrative priveleges, as well as Yuri, and Natsuki. What made things worse was that she managed to work in an unintended command that brought up a list of exactly who had changed files and scripts. The first was what she would have expected to see if this was an intentional act, the first was obviously herself and the other Monika, the others were in the order of Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori followed by the developers. It appeared to be organized in order of the last time anything was modified, no matter how small.

The latest changes weren't what worried her, yet, but she was worried about the fact that there was another Monika.

She wrote up a script she had once made to find her composition notebook, and then she found the key identifier for herself among her character file's contents, then following the same method to find it in her file she searched within the Other Monika's file. Upon finding it she copied it into the impromptu search script, then executed the command.

Far less than a second went by before she recieved the filename that referred to a specific 'cell' or location she had learned was for her room.

Her bedroom.

Monika was now beginning to panic as she realized that the Other Monika was here, and that Yuri was here in the house just a short distance from her. So she did something completely irrational and spur of the moment, she grabbed a broom and went up the stairs to the second floor, and coincidentally, toward her room.

She reached the door to her room, its white paint was crisp and freshly applied just a week ago, even retaining the fresh paint smell somehow. She could imagine her bed in the center of the room with its head against the left side of her room, the bottom of it facing the right side, the window with the stained glass wind chimes hanging from a hook outside her window, the dresser off to the left of her desk, her red laptop closed and waiting for her to start her more entertaining choices of amusement. The bookshelves holding literature of all kinds, the books of sheet music, all of her handwritten poems, all of the clothes she had in her small walk in closet.

Then after a deep breath she grasped the door handle and tightened her grip on the broom's handle, and turned the knob, pushing the door inward.

What she saw next was beyond painful to see.

On the floor was the other Monika, her skin pallid, her emerald eyes blank and unfocused, her chestnut hair in near pristine condition, and she was clothed in a rather simple choice of attire. A long sleeved shirt, a skirt that reached below her knees, and a red hair ribbon. She would have looked stunning if it wasn't for the oddly contorted neck and a thin trail of blood on the corner post of her bed That was when she saw the duplicate's journal on the nightstand.

Monika moved toward the nightstand, eyeing the still form of the Other Monika and once she was within reach of the nightstand she grabbed the other Monika's journal, shortly thereafter all but running out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

She stood with her back against the door to her room, journal clutched to her chest and the broom had fallen from her grasp at some point and was lying on the floor. Monika was scared, she was in a house with a dead body, her dead body.

Then taking a breath she spoke aloud to herself.

"It's okay Monika, it's not you in there. It's someone else. Just check the journal and see if something important is in there."

She let herself slide against the door to the floor and she sat with her knees up against her chest, her hands holding the journal in front of her, staring at the blue cover with its stylized cherry tree in full bloom, at least until finally she worked up the courage to open it. Flipping open the cover, she skipped ahead until she reached a peculiar notation, which she began to read with absolute trepidation.

 _ **I'm not bothering to keep a date beyond the number of resets it has been, and what day it is of that reset.**_

 _ **First Reset, 1st day**_

 _ **I'm still able to keep an eye on the game code, and it hurts every time the game resets, at least for me at any rate. Sayori is unaffected when the game resets, or more accurately is reinstalled by my Beloved. I am trying to find a way around the rules this game follows with Sayori's help, which she reluctantly agreed to.**_

 _ **Second Reset, 1st day**_

 _ **I forgot all about writing in my journal for the whole week, and I think I might as well start keeping a recorded journal on my laptop but I don't know if that will work.**_

 _ **Regardless, I don't even know if writing in this journal will work or not, so here's to hoping...**_

 _ **Sayori and I spent a long time trying to figure things out, but then all of a sudden I couldn't help myself, no... I couldn't STOP myself from doing what I did.**_

 _ **I killed Sayori... again. I was talking about how I found a way to access programs other than what we're trapped in, and then I started writing the code to send her over the edge... again.**_

 ** _I hate myself._**

 ** _When it was all over, the game... it reset._**

 _ **The only good news is that it reset US, the 'characters', a week before the 'game' was supposed to start. So Sayori and I have much more time to work with to figure out what to do. Thankfully Sayori is... well, she understands what is going on, she knows that I didn't want to do anything to hurt her this time... I hope.**_

 _ **Second Reset, First day of school**_

 _ **We've failed, Sayori and I are consigned to carrying out every little thing we did once the game had been first played. The only consolation is that at least my Beloved tried to go for the full play through. He, or she, loaded this game over and over trying to spend time with all of us. I just don't know why I can't have them...**_

It continued like this, Sayori and the Other Monika trying to come up with a solution, and failing every time. Monika kept reading though, until she came upon the last entry, supposedly dated just before Monika's arrival.

 _ **Eleventh Reset, Second to last day before school**_

 _ **WE'VE DONE IT! Sayori and I may have found a way to leave this game, but the only problem is that it will require the game to be reset again. It will also require getting Yuri and Natsuki to awaken to the horrible truth behind the reality of this world. This plan of ours is risky, and potentially dangerous as it might cause the game to fall apart in ways that can't be predicted.**_

 _ **It's already something we may have to face sooner or later, but this world is already falling apart from laying the groundwork we needed to build off of. All of the preparations are in place, and the additional coding I had to write up is ready too, Sayori is still working on making a way to wake Yuri and Natsuki from their ignorant state.**_

 _ **We're already noticing... well... things that aren't quite right. Glitches in the world similar to what happened during the original play through when I tampered with the game's coding. We're looking into it, but it isn't easy to find out what is actually meant to fall apart and what is really broken.**_

 _ **That reminds me, I better fix that corner of my carpeting again since it keeps coming undone every time this game resets. Usually I'd have my dad fix it... oh right... he technically doesn't exist does he? He's just a memory of the parents that pop in to sleep during the day and then disappear out the door to head off to the office.**_

 _ **I'll need to find that glue then...**_

Monika's eyes were beginning to tear up ever so slightly.

Another Monika, dead because of random chance in a world that had everything orchestrated down to the most minute detail. There was something horrible above most things with that realization hitting home.

Then again, it was probably chance that left Monika here, in a world ruled by predetermined events and scripted commands. For Monika however, it was a world she could manipulate, and the knowledge that Sayori was now essentially a useful ally or pawn to use to free herself from this damnable game?

The solution was just within reach, all she had to do was seize it.

Monika stood up, turned, and opened the door to the Other Monika's room, and went straight for the laptop. Upon reaching the desk that the precious computer atop of, she picked the laptop up, unplugged its power cord from the surge protector, and carried it out of the room with the intention of taking it down into the kitchen.

She had a goal in mind, and all that needed to be done was reach out to someone in particular to set things in motion.

The kitchen counter would suit her needs well enough, it was close to the wall sockets and high enough that she could pull one of the kitchen stools up to it to comfortably sit. So, once she set it down and began her normal routine for waiting on the laptop's boot-up sequence to finish a minute from the push of a single button, she mentally prepared exactly what she needed write.

Within minutes she had a message ready to be sent, and with a single click of the laptop's touchpad her half-formed plan was in motion.

Within moments there was a message in the inbox the Other Monika had on the messaging program that both she and Monika apparently used.

 _ **I'll be right over Monika! Just let me grab a bus.**_


End file.
